Succession star Brian Cox has a lot to say about his Hollywood colleagues, and not all of it is nice.
In his new memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, the Scottish actor dishes out opinions about stars like Steven Seagal, Quentin Tarantino, and Edward Norton, the Big Issue reports.
Cox, a veteran theater actor also known for his work in films such as Braveheart and Rushmore, has recently been vaulted into the limelight thanks to his star turn as Logan Roy in the hit HBO series Succession. Cox won a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Emmy, for his performance on the show.
In the new memoir, Cox writes that Seagal, the martial artist-turned-actor, “is as ludicrous in real life as he appears on screen. He radiates a studied serenity, as though he’s on a higher plane to the rest of us, and while he’s certainly on a different plane, no doubt about that, it’s probably not a higher one.”
Cox finds Tarantino’s movies “meretricious,” valuing “style where there should be substance.…That said, if the phone rang, I’d do it.” Norton, meanwhile, is “a nice lad but a bit of a pain in the arse.”
There’s more: Johnny Depp, Cox writes, is “so overblown, so overrated.” And the late David Bowie was “not a particularly good actor.”
It’s not all bad, though. Cox found Morgan Freeman to be “an absolute gentleman,” and praises the late Alan Rickman as “one of the sweetest, kindest, nicest and most incredibly smart men I’ve ever met.”
A critic for Kirkus enjoyed Cox’s book, writing, “Wisdom, a modicum of modesty, and delicious gossip make for an entertaining memoir.”
Putting the Rabbit in the Hat was published on Thursday in the U.K.; it’s slated for release in the U.S. on Jan. 18, 2022.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
